Singapore — September 22, 2006 — Eastcompeace Smart Card Co., Ltd a leading smart cards vendor in China, received an award from Frost & Sullivan for Business Development Strategy Leadership for the Smart Cards Market in China, during it’s the inaugural 2006 Industrial Technologies Awards Banquet at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore on 22 September, 2006.


The Award recognizes the company's ability to best perceive consumer needs, develop products and/or services that meet consumer needs, successfully introduce products or services to the industry, and identify new market segments to expand the existing customer base within the Chinese smart card market. Through a combination of vision, technology, and successful marketing, the Award recipient has demonstrated superior market growth skills.

In selecting the Business Development Strategy Leadership Award, smart card players from all segments of the Chinese market were considered. China’s smart card market has been one of the fastest growing markets in recent years, and local demand is expected to continue developing at a steady pace. With the emergence of China’s manufacturers in this market, price slashes started to become even more vicious in APAC, driving the regional market to be more competitive.


In his address on the Automation and Electronics sector, Sanjay Singh, Director of Industrial Technologies said, “Frost & Sullivan’s focus on the Smartcards, RFID and Semiconductors sectors that encompasses all elements of the value chain has allowed us an extremely good understanding of these industries. Our presence in Asia has provided the opportunity to interface with the leading and emerging industry participants in these areas. All these industry sectors, especially Smartcards and RFID, are witnessing rapid growth in Asia.”


“For instance, the smartcards market in APAC was estimated to be around 1 billion units in 2005 with a growth rate of around 20 percent driven by the major applications in telecom, banking and finance as well as transit and ID & security applications.” he added.


In China’s massive but ruthlessly price sensitive market, Eastcompeace has managed to remain one of the largest smart card vendors, together with other major players like Watchdata and global players, Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient. “As a smart card vendor who has played a significant role in China’s smart card industry, Eastcompeace has shown that they are gaining ground not only in their core segment but also other emerging segments like banking, ID and pay TV. Their ability to secure an ever growing volume of orders from China’s largest telco also attests to their extraordinary ability to evolve and strategize in such a competitive environment.” said Senior Research Analyst for Smart Cards and Auto ID, Michelle Foong.


Their core segment has been telecoms. In 2005, 75% of the company’s revenues came from products in this segment, in which they supply SIM, RUIM, PIM and USIM cards, ranging from 16K to 256K cards. In fact, this vendor has already received massive orders from China Mobile (China’s largest telco) for 2006. The growth in orders coming from China’s largest mobile operator testifies to the competitiveness even in such a price sensitive market like China’s SIM market. Eastcompeace also achieved certification from Zhuhai city authorities for their CDMA R-UIM smart cards. 3G Cards with OTA III for China Mobile has undergone testing and is awaiting 3G license. In addition, the company launched their mega-memory SIM called the “BigSIM” that uses Nand flash memory chip from Samsung Electronics. With such product developments and more in the pipeline, the company will continue to focus on telecommunications smart cards as a key portion of their portfolio.


In the ID segment, they are among the few local vendors involved in supplying to China’s high profile 2nd Generation National ID project, with more than 50 million cards delivered to date.
As of 2005, Eastcompeace has already expanded its company outside of China. Branch offices have been opened in other Asia Pacific countries including India and Indonesia. In mid-2005, Eastcompeace successfully penetrated the Indian market, as it obtained a contract to manufacture financial cards for major banks in the country. This is also its first banking contract outside China. In addition the company is also working on banking cards for major Korean and Indonesian banks.


Outside Asia, Eastcompeace also gained new clients like France Telecom, Vodafone group (Turkey), and other markets in Middle East & African market (such as Yemen, Egypt, Ghana, Somalia, Morocco, etc.).


“We are honored to receive the award which recognises our significant achievements in China. To move forward, we will continue to improve our product R&D and customer service and do our utmost to boost the development of smart card application in China and all over the world.” Said Mr. Zhou Zhongguo, CEO of Eastcompeace.

 
Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.awards.frost.com
http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/press-release.pag?docid=83514430
Media Contact:
Donna Jeremiah
Corporate Communications - Asia Pacific
P: +603.6204.5832
E: djeremiah@frost.com
About Eastcompeace
Established in 1998 with the head office in Zhuhai, Eastcompeace is the key State-torch High-tech Program enterprise in China. Oriented on technology innovation, Eastcompeace has set up R&D and regional market service centers in Beijing, Zhuhai, Hangzhou, Singapore and Jakarta. The Company was listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange of China (002017.SZ) in July, 2004.
Since its establishment，Eastcompeace has been the leading smart card company in China. Now the Company is the NO.1 SIM card vendor in China by market share and the biggest supplier for China National Contactless ID card project. According to the annual marketing survey of 2004 by CardTechnology, Eastcompeace ranks No. 6 in the world for the SIM card shipments. Up to 2005, Eastcompeace supplied above 400 million pieces of CPU cards and 12 billion pieces of scratch cards, which enabled Eastcompeace to be the world TOP 6 smart card supplier and China No. 1 from 2002 to 2005.
With international qualifications like GSM SAS, VISA, MasterCard, as well as ISO9001 & 14001 and approved service experience in above 30 countries, Eastcompeace could provide a wide range of customized card products and system solutions in telecommunications, banking, government & ID sectors.
 
Customer is the biggest value for Eastcompeace. We are always doing our utmost to grow with our customers and partners.
For more information, please contact:
Kevin Chen
Marketing Manager – International Business
P:+86 756 8682 892
E: kevin@eastcompeace.com